Al Madrigal

Al Madrigal has appeared in two swiftly axed sitcoms that played up his half-Mexican heritage—but in his stand-up, the just-hired Daily Show correspondent sounds like the funniest dad in any interchangeable group of suburbanite parents waiting for the kids to finish their birthday cake so everyone can go home. Agreeably generic or not, the jokes are solid, understated riffs on the frustrations of family life and the dangers of letting your son venture into the Moonbounce. That affable natures sells many of the best bits on Madrigal’s recent album, Cholos On A Moped, like the too-sincere-to-be-fictional account of a seemingly gang-banging soccer coach who tells the comedian’s son, “Pay attention or you’re gonna have bad dreams.” 

Updated 06/15/2011